Volunteer Firefighters give over $659million to New Zealand’s economy

According to the Strengthening our Approach to Volunteering report, commissioned by the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, New Zealand is a volunteering nation with 49.8% of its population volunteering with an organisation or directly in their communities and an estimated economic value of $4 billion a year (source: https://www.communitymatters.govt.nz/strengthening-our-approach-to-volunteering/)

This week is National Volunteer Week, the theme is “He wā pīataata, time to shine” and the United Fire Brigades’ Association would like to shine a light on the incredible contribution that volunteer firefighters give to the communities of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Volunteer firefighters make up 85% of Fire and Emergency’s frontline workforce and respond to emergencies across 95% of New Zealand’s landmass. For the twenty-year period from 1999 to 2019 volunteer firefighters responded to 47% of all structure fires, 55% of all urgent medical emergencies and 68% of all vegetation wildfires. The annual economic value of volunteer firefighters if monetised is estimated at $659million – a significant amount of financial savings for New Zealand Taxpayers.

In the last 12 months, the UFBA has presented Gold Star service medals to 54 volunteer firefighters in recognition of their 25 Years of Service, and a further 12 volunteer firefighters with medals for their 50 years of service. In the last three weeks alone, we celebrated four 50-year service medals for volunteer firefighters. The extensive commitment and dedication of volunteer firefighters to serve and protect their communities is nothing short of extraordinary.

Cheers to the volunteers!

For over 140 years we’ve brought brigades together from across New Zealand and included our first international brigade in the Cook Islands. Today we represent and provide services to over 690 different brigades from urban, rural, career, volunteer, defence, airport and industry brigades. Our services are available for nearly 14,000 individuals who cover many different roles including firefighters, secretaries and treasurers and operational support.